Congressmen Raja Krishnamoorthi and Mark DeSaulnier Call On Oversight Committee To Hold Hearings On Problems With White House Security Clearance Process

WASHINGTON, DC — Congressmen Raja Krishnamoorthi and Mark DeSaulnier of the Oversight Committee wrote to Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings yesterday, urging them to hold hearings to address the continuing problems with the White House security clearance process and the full extent of the issue throughout the executive branch.

A signed copy of the letter from the Congressmen is available here and its text follows.

The Honorable Trey Gowdy The Honorable Elijah Cummings

Chairman Ranking Member

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

2157 Rayburn House Office Building 2471 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Gowdy and Ranking Member Cummings:

Since the beginning of the Trump administration, multiple reports have shed light on the ongoing problem of the White House senior staff's inability to obtain full security clearances. Most recently, Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner's security clearance was downgraded from an interim Top Secret/SCI to an interim Secret-level security clearance due to concerns over his financial ties and failure to thoroughly disclose his foreign contacts.

On February 15^th, the Chairman sent a letter to the White House Chief of Staff requesting more information concerning the process by which Executive Branch staff interim security clearances are investigated and adjudicated, as well as a list of employees in the Executive Office of the President for whom a security clearance has either been pending or adjudicated since January 2017. While the White House did respond to this request, the information provided to the Committee provided no insight into the White House's process of investigating and adjudicating interim security clearances.

Despite these reports and the Chairman's request, no substantive information has been provided and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has not held a single hearing to investigate the White House senior staff's continued problems with security clearances

With this in mind, we urge you to convene Committee hearings that address the following issues:

1. The harm that was caused by having senior staff working for over a year without the full clearances necessary to carry out their duties
2. The full extent of this problem throughout the executive branch

We thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to working with you as we fulfill our mandate to provide necessary oversight across the federal government.

Sincerely,

Raja Krishnamoorthi Mark DeSaulnier

Member of Congress Member of Congress